Suspend execution in case of Luther T. Palmer 5th N.Y. Artillery for fourteen (14) days and send record to me for examination.

John Hay A.A.G. A LINCOLN

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Annotation

[1] D, DNA WR RG 107, Presidential Telegrams, I, 344. This telegram is entirely in Hay's handwriting. On February 13, A. P. Case, Vernon, New York, had written Representative Francis Kernan: ``The bearer is the wife of Luther T. Palmer a Private in 5th N.Y. Artillery, who now lies at Harper's Ferry under sentence of death, for desertion. He is to be shot on the 17th Feb. She wishes an immediate interview with the President, that she make a personal appeal for a pardon. . . .'' (DLC-RTL).

General Sheridan replied to Lincoln's telegram on the same day: ``Dispatch in the case of Luther T Palmer received and order issued suspending the sentence'' (ibid.).